Mount Rainier & Puyallup River

My husband had a day off recently.  He wasn't quite ready to go home after we got his fishing license and then went out to eat. He turned the car the opposite way than home and started driving.  He was told of this town with a big sporting good store.  (It's not that big!)  He wanted to find it.  It was a cute little town, older place near the valley of Mount Rainier.  There was a fun park we stopped at to let the kids play.  It has these awesome trees. 

I love this line of trees.

This one reminds me of a tree in my grandparent's yard in Utah. (Their kids sold their home this past summer.)

These trees would make some awesome tree houses! At the park we saw this peek-a-boo view of Mount Rainier too.

I love seeing this mountain.  It's so relaxing; it also makes me grateful for all the man upstairs has given and done for me.  Okay, now onto the pictures of the river!

I love how the sunlight glistens on the water!  We stopped at the river to see if there could be a swimming hole to take the kids this summer. NOPE!

Way to deep to swim in even with a life jacket.

The water was way too choppy & swift for kids to swim in it. 

On our way back home my husband pulled off the road so we could take these pictures of Mount Rainier! 

Right after I snapped this picture my husband grabbed the cell phone and snapped the following picture.

He took a few of this same view, as we were standing on the sidewalk, on a bridge, over the river we just visited.  He almost dropped the camera (my cell phone) in the river twice.  My youngest looks at me and says, 'mom it's okay if daddy drops it, he'll have to earn money to buy you a new one.  I'll make sure he does'! What a love bug I've raised.

Oh this river is the Puyallup river that runs thru the small country town of Orting Washington USA.

All the pictures here are taken by me (except for the last picture of Mount Rainier, taken by my husband) with the Samsung Galaxy 4S cell phone.  I love this phone!  The camera is definitely the most used feature on the phone. (Yes, probably even more than talking and texting!)


Have you gone exploring with kids this summer as a family or by yourself?

Moo cow

I swear all I hear all day long is mommy I'm hungry! Mom I need something to eat. These kids need to stop eating so much.  It's not out of boredom.  They are plenty entertained.  The youngest is going thru a growth spurt and his sister is trying to catch back up with him and it's just not working! We go thru so much milk, peanut butter and ranch dressing I almost think we need to take stock in these to start getting our moneys worth or buy a cow. MOOOO!

At the baseball game this kid ate three hot dogs! He's always stuffing his face with food! He keeps asking me is it school days yet? Nope not yet...

Have a happy, fun and safe Fourth of July.

How are you celebrating the 4th of July?

Packing Turtles

We're going out of town this Fourth of July.  My buddy decided that he needs to pack his stuff to get ready to go. He snagged his bag from me. About one hour later this is what his stuff looked like. He was yelling MOM I am ready to go!! We still have a few days till we leave!

That's Leo on the top in the grocery bag. Raf and Leonardo are tangled together underneath him and they are sitting on top of the empty bag!! I guess clothes aren't important to a 5 year old, just his buddies!

What toy is your child's favorite?

Family Time

This past weekend we were able to spend some quality family time at a baseball game.  Who knew four kids and their two parents would have so much fun. My hubby got tickets from the Manager at work. Might I add in there Suit tickets with covered seating, hamburgers, hotdogs, soda, water, popcorn, peanuts, the WORKS!! 

This is Chenney Stadium in Tacoma Washington. (Not the big Safeco Field in Seattle!) We sat directly behind home plate.  The seats couldn't have been any better!

Here's the final score!  We almost lost but the Rainiers recovered and won the game!

Usually it is both teams that are walking by each other high fiving, but only the home team did. Kind of sad the Grizzlies didn't participate in this.

Everyone who knows my husband understands he is not a sports kind of guy.  He doesn't have a favorite baseball or football team.  He doesn't follow basketball or soccer.  After this game he thought it was fun and is ready to go see a Mariners game.  (I think I know what to get him for our anniversary!)

I have more pictures from the game. I will have another post or two this week with more pictures.  I'll tell you about the dog named Muck and other things...

What did you do this weekend?

Summer is coming!

I wish it were summer!  I wish the cooler weather would go away and school was out!  We have two and a half days of school left!  I hope the sunshine will get here fast!  I've been helping kids with homework and study help for tests!  I hope they both pass!  I know my elementary child will!  It's kind of bittersweet.  All my kids will be in school next year!  First time ever!  I've had 3 kids at three different schools, but come September I will have two in high school and two in elementary.  I'm not sure I am ready for two in high school let alone have my youngest in school.  When my 14 year old went to kindergarten I remember standing at the bus stop talking with another mom, trying not to sob.  She was sending her first one off to school and she had a baby just under one.  I told her you think it would get easier, but it doesn't.  I'll admit that I've gotten teary eyed thinking about it. I will say once the kids have their first day off or week I will be thanking the district that they get to go back!

I have a few things we are going to do this summer that the kids don't know about yet.  The older ones are going to learn to cook!  Might I add in there more than just mac n cheese, top ramen, and microwave leftovers or a hot dog.  My oldest does like to help when BBQING. They are going to work on some merit badges for scouts and hopefully we will get to visit the beach and make a few awesome crafts!  My daughter is dying to go to the zoo!

What are your summer plans?

Lemonade

I'll have to say I am a big fan of lemonade, tart, sweet, it's delicious! On Pintrest there has been quite a few lemonade recipes. I decided to try this one that is supposed to taste like Chick-Fil-A.

This is definitely thirst quenching on a warm spring, almost summer day!  I'm so grateful for the sunshine this week.  It makes me happy.  This lemonade also makes me happy! Here's the recipe I used.

First gather all your ingredients and a helper!

Then put that helper to work!

My helper did an awesome job juicing the lemons.  Here's a quick tip, if you microwave the lemon (or limes or oranges) for about 20 seconds they will juice more.  My middle school student brought this tip home from his Consumer Science class (just like Home Ec back in the days)! This tip really does work!

Dump the lemon juice into a pitcher, add about 6 glasses of cold water and 1 cup of sugar. Mix it all together! Yes mix the pulp in there too!

I think next time I will add strawberries!  The kids of course as usual fought over who was going to drink the last bit!

I used a total of 9 lemons (the 10th one was squishy)!  This is definitely a make again recipe especially for a hot summer day! Totally refreshing!

Enjoy!

Funnies

I can't believe it is finally FRIDAY!!! TGIF!  It has been a long week!  School is almost done!  My daughter gets off the bus Wednesday and she doesn't even say hi but she excitedly tells me that there are twelve days of school left!  Is this what they are teaching the kids when they return to school after Memorial Weekend, they start the countdown as to how many school days are left??!! I just think it is funny! 

This morning I took a picture of "Bambi" (a deer).  I showed it to my youngest when I got home. He excitedly told me that this is Santa's reindeer that we saw on a walk in Georgia when we lived there! The deer we saw in GA had antlers, definitely not the same!

Run Bambi, run!  I hope She doesn't become someone's lunch or dinner! Be careful out there drivers!

Have an awesome weekend!!

Patriotic Crafts

Friday is our deadline we have to have our crafts in the mail for our swap! One of my crafts stayed local and another one is on it's way to Florida! YAY! I'm such a procrastinator! Glad I wasn't mailing them on the last day! (Which is tomorrow by the way!) I finished these Wednesday but got them out of the house today!

The local swap buddy picked this craft!  She really liked both, but chose this!

Here is what the my other craft recipient is going to get!

Hooray it's done!  Here's another view of the quilt!

I love the stars on this quilt!  It really turned out awesome! This quilt was not made from a pattern, but a do as you go type of quilt.  Once squares were sewn together and formed rows and the rows formed the top and bottom and I added the white to the middle, same amount of fabric as the rows.  The stars I drew a star on the back of extra cut squares and cut. All stars are different! I love how it turned out! LOVE!!! I'm sad to give it away and I know my kids are mad at me (all fought over who got it), but I am NOT going to make another quilt for future craft swaps till I finish two quilts that I have for kids here at home! I will still join future craft swaps!

Have you made anything crafty lately?

Memorial Weekend

It was a super long weekend! The kids also had Friday off from school. The oldest got pukey sick, my daughter got a bad cough and is home from school today. She also went on a mommy date while the three boys got to eat at Five Guys restaurant with daddy and loved it! (I think the oldest's burger wasn't cooked 100%; why he got sick.) My hubby traded in his mini van for a new car and he bbq'd some awesome food! I got fed a baked potato which was bbq'd, corn on the cob cooked in it's husk, steak. Yum!  The kids devoured their food like they were not fed all day! It was nice to sit and relax today.  I started working on my Patriotic craft that needs to be done, mailed and delivered by Friday. I will post pictures later this week on the craft and bbq'd food.

What did you do this weekend?

Friday Funnies

I can't believe I missed posting Wednesday & Thursday!  I made the bug costume Wednesday and last night we had the play.  My baby girl handed me a handful of cotton balls right before we needed to walk out the door. I hurriedly hot glued them back on and loaded up my crew, then left. I wanted to get their early to get an actual park in the parking lot and get good seats, like the front row! That didn't happen!

Well I could have definitely used some good laughs this last week.  I swear the teenagers bring home so much drama!  This funny from my 7 year old kept me going thru the week.  We got to church late, so we are waiting for the Sacrament to finish before we go into the chapel to find seats and sit down.  We are waiting in the hall with a few others and my little girl tells me she wants to whisper something in my ear.  I bend down and she whispers in kind of a loud voice, "Mom, this is like being in an elevator full of strangers"!! I think this is one of the best funny things kids say ever!  This really made my Mother's Day!!

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend! Any big plans?

Procrastinating

Today I have spent procrastinate on making my daughter's bug costume!  She doesn't get to be a fancy lady bug or butterfly. She gets to be a weevil that eats cotton candy!  She doesn't even like cotton candy!  She's a fan of chocolate! Only chocolate! Okay maybe a pink starburst but she has to be in the mood! So my little girl that likes pink and purple as her signature colors is going to be dressed in brown or black.  I don't think we even own a brown pair of pants, shoes or even a speck of brown on her clothes she owns. Oh wait now that I wrote that she does have brown on a dress she picked out last summer before we moved!  You got to love end of the school year plays and other activities that keep you busy!  Coming tomorrow after I make the costumes, and she gets home from school I will post pictures!

I have two crafts also to make with a patriotic theme. I really want to make a quilt and make a crochet lap blanket. I started both but not sure if I have time to make either!  I might I just need to find the motivation.  I quilt my work at home job that I did for my brother in law because I wasn't getting paid.  After about six weeks of work I was done not getting paid. Hence my procrastination, I am done working for nothing. (Not even behaving kids - they really are showing their attitudes lately.)

Have a great night!

Little Froggy

My youngest has been quite entertaining lately!  He wants to do chores so he can make money, but this morning he just tried to catch a frog with a hot pad! He was afraid to touch it! He did catch it eventually, but I let him go.  Poor frog was being squished by the hot pad and little chubby fingers that held it!  I let it go over the fence in the neighbor's yard but he started hopping back towards our home!  Now my buddy thinks if we go to the park near our house he will find more frogs there to catch and keep as pets. We're getting ready to go to the park!  I pray there are no frogs to catch for pets!

He's right there in the middle of the picture!  Trying to hop away! He was just found!

He's such a good sport posing for pictures!!

 

Here's my buddy still trying to catch the frog without touching it! Boys can be so entertaining sometimes!  My oldest has no problem touching frogs, snakes, but my number two doesn't like it just like my baby!

 

This was very entertaining as a parent! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Catch ya Monday with flower pictures!

 

Earning Money, The Little Kids

My youngest has been doing chores to earn money for Mother's Day.  He keeps telling me that he's going to sell snow cones to make money. A few weeks ago it was too cold to do that.  He forgot about that when I made cookies and told him maybe daddy wants to buy some from you. He filled a baggy full of cookies and went to wake up his dad.  He told his dad five bucks for the bag of cookies. He was quite upset. He told him why he wanted to earn some money. Daddy said he doesn't have five dollars. I whispered in my baby's ear try three dollars. He gets a big smile on his face and says three bucks daddy. I told the hubby you don't get the cookies if you don't pay up something.  He got his wallet and gave him the last three dollars. He made his son very happy. He started chirping what he was going to buy mom. I'm getting her a tomato plant and a pot and a bag of dirt!

And this week he is doing the dishes! He really wants to earn money for a Mother's Day present!

I hope he doesn't change his mind and decide he wants to buy some TMNT Legos or a different toy.

Even his big sister got jealous and wanted to earn money too.  She claims she is going to make more money than him!  She is my child that refuses to clean!  She picks up a pencil and notebook of paper and goes to work drawing when it is time to clean house. However she wanted to make money and decided all on her own she is going to make beds, so right before bedtime she made all the beds in the house.  When she got home from school the next day, she made everyone's beds again!! She did a pretty good job too!

She even gave me her favorite puppy to sleep with!

Is your children doing anything for Mother's Day for you?

Teenagers!

Hi everyone!  Ever get one of those phone calls?  Sometimes I know my oldest just wants to hang out with his friends instead of coming home and doing the tremendous amount of homework his teachers have been assigning.  I got one of those calls.  I wasn't going to answer when the caller id showed the high school number. I just had one of those feelings. I picked it up. Talk about mother heart failure.  The school called 911 for my oldest.  One of the EMT's tried to get my buddy to take a sticker from him.  Absolutely no he would not!

As soon as they left he snagged the sticker from his hands.  He had an allergic reaction.  No biggie. No it wasn't peanuts, but I think he learned his lesson not to eat or drink from his friends.  Good thing it isn't the sunshine he's allergic to!  Okay on to other stuff.

I worked on a quilt this weekend. Here's a sneak peak!

It's going to be awesome!!  I got all the strips sewn. I just have to add a WOW factor to it and then sew all the strips and the wow together!

It might be Monday, but let's make the most of it!  After all here in my neck of the woods it's sunny!

Thanks for stopping by and reading! I need to get working!

What are your plans for the week?

Drama, cars, sick kids

I don't know what happened last week, but I didn't post anything!  Sorry readers.  I've been under the weather thanks to one of my kids being sick, breathed all over me and shared!  I've been busy working trying to make a few extra bucks for the family.  Every time I think I am close to getting ahead something else happens!  Last Friday I took all the kids to the store and thank goodness I had my oldest with because he seems to think he can fix anything!  I'm almost believing he can! When I pulled into the parking spot my 14 year old said I was WAY over the line. I checked and yes I was.  I went to pull the emergency brake already off.  I had a hard time backing my car up and pulling back in.  Talk about stress.  The two younger kids were complaining they were thirsty so I took them to the water fountain in the back of the store and called the hubby. Of course he had a feeling.  Well while I was making those thirsty kids happy, the oldest said he could temporary fix the issue at hand, the stuck on e-brake. I told the hubby I would call him back and let him know what happens.  Sure enough he was able to figure it out!  Hooray for teenagers; they are actually useful!  Sometimes more useful than the hubby is!  Don't tell him that!!  So whenever I go somewhere now I have to take him with because he has the magic hands to undo the set brake.  It's just one thing after another with this old beasty gas guzzler!

We also had birthday's in the family this last week!  My niece, or should I say my mom's oldest grandchild turned 20!! I was just out of high school and just finished my first college term when she was born!  Happy Birthday niece & sis!

On Monday last week it was earth day.  Walking to the bus stop I found this little baby pansy flower in the crack between the sidewalk and the curb.

I used to love pansies.  I had a quilt with them appliqued all over the quilt.

I don't want to ramble off your ear so I will post more tomorrow! Promise!!

Orange & Kids

My kids were begging me to get them orange juice. They were dying!

 I had these oranges that were quite juicy and needed to be eaten so I got out a knife, rolled the orange a few times squishing it on the counter, cut a slit in the top and cut a straw in half and stuck it in the orange!  They thought it was funny! 

It reminded me as a kid when we went to our school carnival they did this with lemons and candy cane sticks.  Those were so good!

The kids thought I was crazy, but they loved their orange drink!

Purse Change

I've been absent for about a week now. Sorry!  I've picked up a side job doing some stuff for a relative. It's really quite boring and I would rather be crafting or baking up a storm!  Really!!  We had two birthdays in the family this last week. My daughter turned 7 and my hubby, well I won't tell you how old he turned but I will tell you he got his birthday wish!  Overtime!! Wahooo!  Now if only he would let me get my crafty thing I want! He said he would get it for me but still hasn't!  Okay enough of that!  My purse has been getting really heavy lately.  My oldest needed some money for a camp he is going to so I cleaned it out just for him!  He's been working hard.  He deserves some money!  I should have put it in my change cup but I started earlier this year, or was it the end of last year?  I can't remember. Anyways here is what I found!!

It's about 10 bucks in purse money, purse change, whatever you want to call it!  I should do this more often!!  I feel rich!  Okay I did for a small moment till I gave it to my son!

I'll be back tomorrow to share with you something else!

What have you found in your purse?  How often do you clean it out?

Saddened

Last week on Thursday during Spring Break a road was closed in the evening hours and thru the night.  Two sheriff SUV's, an ambulance and a big rig fire truck blocked the road off.  It happened around dinner time. We had no clue what happened. Sunday we drove by on our way home form the gas station and there were flowers on the side of the road. I'm all oh my gosh someone died there.  It's a little too close to home.  My elementary child brought home a letter yesterday.  She told me it was a crash, an older child said a car was backing out of its driveway; A bicycle rider was hit.  The child was in 5th grade. After reading the letter from the principal. It all made sense. My heart goes out to the family, parents, siblings, aunts, uncle, friends and more.  I could not imagine loosing a child and thank my Heavenly Father that he has kept my kids safe in all they do.

Last night as I got my daughter ready for bed, she wanted to say a special prayer for the family. We said a prayer for the lost friend and I said my own personal prayer before going to sleep.  She went right to sleep and slept real well.

Please parents at the weather gets nice and children are out playing, please watch them so this doesn't happen to them. To drivers, please slow down and watch for children playing.

Back In School!

The kids are back in school!  Hooray!!! I am so excited to have the house back to myself.  Okay, well almost!  My five year old is feeling left out that he still doesn't get to go to school.  I told him next year when Spring Break is almost over he will get to get up early in the morning like the rest of the kids and get on the school bus to give mom a break!  I told him they have Spring Break to give the teachers a break!  The husband is home sleeping or should I say snoring away!

We didn't go anywhere or do anything.  The weather was sunny and nice the first few days and then turned rainy on us.  The kids got out and rode bikes in the neighborhood.  The oldest got the lawn mower out and made some money on the sunny days. My husband still worked and me, well I had some good days and bad days!  My "bug bites" aren't bug bites.  I'm having an allergic reaction to something and the doctors can't figure out what it is.  When I have to take a lot of meds for it, well I have no energy and don't sleep.  You get the idea.  Hopefully we can figure out soon what the issues are.

On a side note.  I picked up a small part time job working at home for my fabulous brother in law again. (I did this last year for a few months on and off.)  Some of it is really easy and some of it is not so easy and challenges me.  I think I will use the money to go back to school since my hubby says I can't use any money from his paycheck or I might use it to buy some crafting toys. I don't know yet. Save it? Vacation? Okay now we are talking!

This past weekend we BBQ'd!  I'll post pictures in the coming days! Yum, yum!  I love it when my husband isn't working overtime on the weekends!

I hope your Monday is FABULOUS whatever you are doing!

New Kitchen Toy

Yesterday I didn't post because I had parent teacher conferences!  My child in elementary school is very smart!  She's a little hard on herself and refuses to do homework!  Starting after Spring Break she will be loosing recess if she doesn't turn it in! Uh-oh!  Her teacher says she is somewhat of a perfectionist!

Now onto other things!  My husband broke my blender around Thanksgiving time last year.  He told me he would replace it. Months later he finally bought me a Ninja. Okay it's Ninja brand.  I swear, this thing is the bomb!  I saw some consumer report on the news about blenders and this one ranked right up there with the Vita Mixer. Who out there has hundreds of dollars to spend on a kitchen appliance? Not me that's for sure! So I had to test it out to see if it really made ice into snow.

Here's the ice....now let's turn it into snow....

Beautiful.

It actually tasted like you were eating snow! Now to turn it into something delicious!

We lived in Arizona for a year.  Bahama Buck's was introduced to me by my bff from college. She bought this for me when we were traveling thru Arizona from Georgia moving back to Washington State.  That's another story for another time.  Oh my goodness!  YUM!  The kids were in Heaven!

Oh YUM!  This was absolutely a great treat for the kids and myself!  I can't wait for summer!

What kitchen appliance is your favorite?